11/26/2016

''' MODELLING -[STUDENTS]-

*MYSTERIES* '''

*TRUST US* : THE WORLD STUDENTS SOCIETY BELONGS to every model, to every student, of every discipline, in the world.

All economics, all financials and revenues, all honours and acclaims, all scholarships, all music rights, all film rights, all book rights, will always be the exclusive ownership of the students of the world.

WHEN MOST people think of exploitation in modeling, they think of young women and girls walking the catwalks with alarmingly protruding hips and angular shoulders or-

They remember the lurid tales of celebrity photographers manipulating and coercing young women. Muscle-bound male models with perfect cheekbones and fat paychecks? They do not seem like obvious victims.

FRANCE, SPAIN, ITALY AND ISRAEL have all passed legislation within the past decade requiring-

All models working in those countries to possess a medical certificate that declared them fit to work

''IN JAPAN -YOU HAVE A STRONG DESIRE FOR YOUNGER, sweet-looking male models, and to the extent that you may-

Represent the market, they're simply smaller sized,'' says Valerie Steele, an American fashion historian, curator and director of the Museum at the *Fashion Institute of Technology* in New York City.

Combined with culture shock, long work hours and isolation from their families and friends, young male models often enter these new markets unaware of their *labor rights* and the *dangers they might face*.

In the summer of 2014, Habermacher joked that I should head to East Asia if I wanted my career to really take off.

''They'd love you over there,'' the photographer told me,'' and the pay is crazy: You can make up to 10,000, maybe 20,000 Euros a month.

If you're busy, but you can be shooting back-to-back for up to 16 or 18 hours a day.'' But Habermacher was not actually recommending that I make the move because he knew what I would have to do to succeed in Asia.

''They like small boys over there, I mean really small.'' he said. ''You'd have to lose around 10 kilos to really make it.''

The idea of starting a new thrilling life in Tokyo, Seoul or Shanghai was tempting. Losing 15% of my body weight was not.

Shedding 10 kilograms [about 22 pounds] would have sent my body mass index {BMI}, a scale using height and weight measurements to judge whether somebody is overweight or underweight, down to 16.9, a level the World Health Organization defines as ''severely malnourished''.

But I was tempted, in spite of my concerns over my health. Asia offers male models financial opportunities that seem ever scarcer in saturated Western markets and in an industry where men earn far less than their female counterparts.

According to a Forbes report, from June 2012 to September 2013, the top 10 highest earning female models made a combined $83.3 million: from September 2012 to September 2013, the top 10 men made $8 million.

The best-paid female model, GiesleBundchen, made $42 million between June 2012 and June 2013; Sean O'Pry, the highest earning man, made $1.5 million in the year ending in September 2013.

There's a gender gap lower down in the market too, with salary data company Payscale reporting that:

Female models can expect an average yearly income of $41,300, compared with the Forbes estimate of male earnings around $28,000 in recent years, approximately $2,000 short of the New York living wage as calculated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

One model from Models-1, Europe's largest agency, took up his booker's offer of a summer in the Far East. He agreed to speak to the researcher on the condition of anonymity:

''I came because I wanted to make some money before starting university,'' says the model, a 19-years old British student. Yet in retrospect, he says, specifics were missing from his conversation with his booker.

''Money was not discussed,'' he says.

He signed a contract to head to Tokyo in the winter of 2015 with little knowledge of the small print. He felt honoured to be offered the opportunity and assumed the terms and conditions would be reasonable and lucrative.

But when he showed his mother the contract, she was appalled at the conditions he had agreed to. ''She basically said that I'm going to come back with nothing and that, at best, I'll break even,''

His travel and accommodation were to be covered by the agency, but under the terms of contract the money had to be paid back.

He would start receiving payment for jobs only after his debt was cleared. Until then, he would have to live on an allowance of about $87 a week, an amount he could not survive on, so he needed his mother to supplement.

Certain clauses felt particularly exploitative, he says. If he did not book enough jobs, he would have been sent home at his own expense, owing his agency a four-figure sum.

If he breached any other terms, including cutting hair without permission, getting a suntan or putting on any weight, he could have faced the same forfeit.

But the model decided to go regardless, thinking that the experience of living abroad would be worthwhile and that there was always a chance of getting his big break.

''I just feel so lucky,'' he says, talking via FaceTime from his small Tokyo apartment.

The Honour and Serving of this great *Operational Research on Students and Life* continues. Thank Ya all for reading. Do share forward and knowledge all the students world over.

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